La France

Im here. That’s right folks, Mix is in France. I arrived in Paris on Tuesday night (I love saying that). Everything went smoothly with the pickup at the airport by my moms friends, and then the next day with the trainride to Lille where I was greeted by my friend L.O.D.

My flight was long and boring as expected but I travelled at night and so I am not jet lagged. I flew for nine hours direct to London where I stayed at Heathrow airport for two hours (sorry G.Q., no celebrities). My first thought as we flew over London was `my god, they actually do drive on the wrong side of the road…` Of course I knew this was true, but somewhere in the back of my head, I didn’t quite believe it. When we descended through the air to the tarmac, I had the feeling of flying over Mr Rogers neighbourhood and had to restrain myself from singing. It just looks so perfect. The houses are all the same, and the town is so cemetrical. I havent yet had an England experience, but I am looking forard to my June 25th arrival in the city (not that I want my France trip to, speed up, because I am having a blast).

I have been staying with L.O.D. in her apartment in Lille for the past two nights, and will stay there for another week and a half except for weekends, when we will go to her families house in Marcq en Baroeul, a small town fifteen minutes outside of Lille, where I am right now. And, I have just been told that on Sunday, we will be going to the beach in Belgium. Oh the life!!!

L.O.D. lives in the dorm for an engineering college in Lille (don’t ask me how she ended up there as she attends a different school) and so she is one of only five or so females in the building. The boys seem cool enough though. Everyone is really friendly and I have managed to make quite a few friends already. Although, not all of them speak English as well as L.O.D. but with their jarred English, and my equal ability at spoken French (which I had managed, up until last night, not to speak a word of, except the odd merci, or de rien to shop keepers…it is, not surprisingly, coming back to me though), we have come up with a language of our own. There was a party last ngiht in her building (and a much tamer one the night before) at which you bought a ticket for five euros (approx 7 dollars) and then made your way around the building to different apartments and got drinks at each station. It was fun, but VERY tame in comparison to Canadian parties. Everyone claimed they were drunk, but nobody fell of the roof and everything remained intact. And, the only person who threw up was L.O.D. Haha. In the hall, and in her garbage can, once missing the garbage can and instead hitting me, the floor, her shoes, and my sleeping bag. Anyone know how to wash a down mummy bag?? When they asked me if we had quote `crazy drinking parties` like that in Canada, I just looked at them and laughed.

France is exactly what I expected. It looks just like what we are brought up to believe it looks like. The only thing that I am continually surprised by (although I was forwarned) is their lack of hygene in the cities. They are SO dirty. Eveyone smokes and I have yet to see an ashtray anywhere, and so the streets are littered with cigarette butts. There used to be garbage cans on streets corners, but they were being blown up with bombs, and so they no longer exsist, leaving garbage all over the sidewalks. And dog shit. Oh the dog shit. I didn’t know that it was possible for there to be so much. And, there is the constant lingering smell of bum. The degree of bum varies, but it is always there. The buildings are tall and flat, and the cars are short and fat (comme `Just Married`) and drivers have no idea what they are doing. North Americans are constantly being accused of always being in a hurray behind the steering wheel, but, I must say this, AT LEAST WE KNOW HOW TO DRIVE!!! It is, no joke, every man for himself…or at least this seems to be what they believe…They don’t use turns signals EVER, or lanes for that matter. They are usually driving half in one lane, half in another, or else in no lane at all. The only thing that they seem to pay attention to are traffic lights which there are an abundance of. Pedestrians pay no attentiont to cars either, crossing the road at their own accord. My first day in Lille, Elodie said to me, while crossing the road, `we don’t wait for the walk signs…`.

Yesterday while I sat at a café with Camille, a friend of L.O.D.s, we observed a confrontation in the middle of the street between two men in which one man pulled a pipe out of his car and hit the other man over the head with it. The other man then reached into his car and pulled out a rench and proceeded to chase after the man with the pipe who then smacked him again, then jumped into his car and sped off. The man with the rench began to chase after the car, but his wife grabbed him and he stopped. Everyone at the café just kept on chatting and the people in the streets just kept on driving by, paying no attention, as if they were thinking `oh no, here we go again…`. I guess this happens often??

So these are my travels thus far. Im having trouble getting used to this keyboard. Its in the azertyuiop format and I have yet to figure out the punctuation (note the lack of, in this).

Ginger, I hope Mexico has been good to you, sorry I havent written.

Chucky, I tried calling you this afternoon, but you were not there…dunno if I can still reach you at the number you gave me. Will try later.

Everyone else, stay out of trouble.